Air traffic, both private and commercial, continues to increase. With this increase, there has been a concomitant increase in the likelihood of runway conflicts. Efforts are thus being made to increase aircraft flight crew situational awareness during ground operations. As part of this effort, a format for databases of airport surface maps has been developed that can be used to render maps including taxiways, runways, and/or apron elements on one or more flight deck displays. Although quite useful in providing a standard database from which to render airport surface maps, the database does not provide any information regarding potential conflicts that may occur between two aircraft on airport surfaces.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and a system that will display maps of airport surfaces, and that will provide sufficient position and/or orientation information to the flight crew. Additionally, it is desirable to have a method and a system that indicates whether a potential conflict exists on a taxiway between two aircraft. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the inventive subject matter will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.